


A Pack of His Own

by Dangerously_Demonic



Series: The Guide to Murder [10]
Category: Jurassic Park - All Media Types, Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: AU universe, Angst and Feels, Baby Indoraptors Are Cute, Domestic Fluff, Indopack, Indoraptor Pile, M/M, Pack Dynamics, Post Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Teeth Rottingly Cute, there be spoilers here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-05 02:47:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15160781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangerously_Demonic/pseuds/Dangerously_Demonic
Summary: In which Rowan finds and rescues a gaggle of Indoraptor hatchlings from the Lockwood Manor who endlessly annoy Murder. As if things couldn't be more of a hassle...Owen, Claire, and Maisie show up to crash at the house. The three aren't exactly happy to be greeted by "The Murderettes".--This is on hold for the time being while I get the other stories in the series finished. I have two more planned after I finish 'Homo Sapiens Raptor' and I don't want to get ahead of myself. It'll get finished at some point.





	1. The Murderettes

**Author's Note:**

> This is all FeralCreed's fault. All of it. But seriously tho'. Baby Indoraptors. I need twenty of them and I don't care if they eat my face.

To say that Murder had zero desire to have a bunch of Indoraptor hatchlings running around was an understatement. Rowan, the fucking bleeding heart, had chosen to rescue not one, not two, but _six_ of the things. His argument was that he could neither let them die, nor be used for whatever was planned for them. Which considering how Indoraptor had been ‘trained’, was likely nothing good. Of course, Murder hadn’t found out about what Rowan had smuggled out of the manor until half way home when the bag in the backseat _chirped_.

Murder was of the mindset that it would have been better to leave them to die, but had the statement quickly turned around on him by Rowan. This left him no choice but to play ‘Indoraptor parent’. Given that his own genetics had been added to the DNA soup that made up the six hybrids, Rowan had aptly named the six, collectively, The Murderettes.

Murder was not amused.

The six of them were loud, demanding, and tended to get into his things. Presently, they were all the size of six-month-old cats, and had all of the mischievousness of an eight week old kitten. Somehow, and for some reason, all six and imprinted on him. He hated it. Rowan thought it was hilarious and gave him a never-ending amount of shit for it.

It had been two weeks since the incident at the manor, and Murder was still vaguely unsettled over things. The whole thing had stunk far, far too much about things he’d been told two decades ago. Still, it was over with and he just had to deal with the mess Rowan had caused. Naming, looking after six little murder beasts.

The sound of knocking at the front door dragged him out of the post-sex sedateness and beside him, Rowan buried his face into the pillow. There was a muffled ‘you get the door’.

“…And who’s going to be the one to go outside to hide the Little Shits if it’s someone serious?”

The knocking got louder, and then Rowan’s phone on the nightstand buzzed. Rowan groaned and plucked up his phone to check the text, then he started composing a reply. “It’s Owen.”

With another groan, Rowan dragged himself out of the bed to get dressed and whined about wanting to sleep. Murder simply remained unimpressed before getting up as well to pull on a pair of jeans; he might as well feed the brats. While Rowan headed to the front door, he headed to the backdoor. The Murderettes were still sleeping in the morning sun but looked to be waking up. He heard the sound of Owen and Claire from the front door.

“Hi, sorry for uhm…Interrupting…Anything. We’re kind of worried that if we head to my place that people will come looking for us.” Owen sounded tired.

“Sorry for just springing it on you, but we were in a no service area.” Claire, this time.

“Yeah, sure. We don’t mind. There’s a spare bedroom you guys can stay in. Just…Watch out for the ankle biters…” Rowan conveniently decided not to ask Murder’s opinion on the whole thing. Mostly because it would have resulted in a great deal of complaining. Murder was a bit territorial and severely disliked guests.

“The…Ankle biters? You have dogs?”

Murder looked over at the front door. Owen was carrying Maisie who looked like she’d just woken up. She mumbled something and Owen set her down.

Rowan made a slight laugh, “Uh…Not…Quite? More…Overenthusiastic…Cats?”

Owen glanced between the two other men, already knowing something was up. Murder just opened the sliding glass door which resulted in a cacophony of screeches and chirps followed by the sound of numerous claws clattering on the wood floor. He shut the door and started shuffling towards the kitchen. The screeches and chirps shifted to a spammy squawk, all except one who just insisted on screeching.

Truth be told, Owen had no idea what to expect, but six Indoraptor hatchlings of varying color stripes was not it. He stared for a long moment as he watched five of them scamper along after Murder like demonic cats; the sixth just sort of stood there and stared at them. Finally, he turned to Rowan and said the only thing he could, “What the fuck.”

It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. Claire took one look at the six and tugged a wide-eyed Maisie behind her. Rowan just shrugged, “I…Liberated them?”

“Rowan is a bleeding-heart sap, who apparently wanted kids. So, he stole them. I found out when we were half-way home.” Murder slapped a chunk of deer meat down on the cutting board and began cutting it up. Around his feet, the five circled him. He glanced down and did a quick head count. “Where the fuck’s Idiot?”

Owen just rubbed the bridge of his nose, “So…Rowan just casually stole a bunch of murder raptors?”

“I resemble that remark.” Murder noted.

“He does.” Rowan agreed.

Owen just let out a massively exasperated sigh. Both of them were massive smartasses. “You _know_ what I mean.”

“Yes, I did. They and just hatched and…I couldn’t leave them to the same fate as the first one.” Rowan glanced at the still circling hatchling and sighed before he nudged its rump with his foot in the general direction of the kitchen. The hatchling let out a sharp screech of panic and bolted into the kitchen where it smacked head first into the leg of a chair. Rowan quickly moved into the kitchen to scoop up the creature and sooth it.

“Is…There something wrong with that one?” Owen didn’t know much about how Indoraptors were supposed to behave, but he already suspected that it wasn’t acting right.

“He’s…Special.” Rowan vagued.

“He’s retarded.” Murder supplied with a slight gesture with the knife in his hand before he dumped a handful of chopped meat into a bowl.

Rowan glared at Murder, “Don’t call him that. He’s special.”

“Re-tard-ed.”

“Stop calling him that, it’s not polite.” Rowan admonished.

“…You’re the one who insisted on calling him ‘Idiot’.”

Rowan shot Murder another glare, “Because you wanted to call him Dumbfuck.”

“Because he is one.”

Rowan muttered out an ‘Oh my God’ as he set the hatchling down on the floor.

Claire gently ushered Maisie to sit on the couch, the young girl held tightly onto her arm, and gave her a look that begged her not to walk away. Finally, she sat down and pulled the girl into a one-armed hug before turning slightly to look at Rowan. “With how you two act married, has he given you a ring yet, Rowan?”

Before Rowan could reply, Murder did. “I frequently bring him birds.”

Rowan could only give a proud grin and Owen rolled his eyes before looking at Claire and nodding, “They basically are.”

This only caused Claire to make a confused expression. Rowan gestured slightly at Murder, “It’s a raptor thing. Sorta like giving flowers.”

From the kitchen came a quiet _thump_ , _thump_ , _thump_. Murder glanced behind him and sighed, “Turn on the light, will you? He’s wall bumping.”

Instead, Rowan simply picked up the same hatchling as before and smiled when it vigorously snuffled his face. He scritched under its chin and quietly murmured, “Hey there.”

Owen leaned on the counter so he could watch the hatchlings, “So you’ve been taking care of them?”

“Oh yeah, Murder’s a fantastic dad. Hunts for them and ma–“ Rowan abruptly shut up when a small chunk of meat smacked against the side of his face. Idiot gobbled down the chunk when it landed near his mouth and began spamming the hunger squawk along with the other hatchlings. “Y’know. He’s got a knife. I probably shouldn’t tease him…But I think he likes me enough not to stab me.”

“Not at the moment.” Murder deadpanned before grabbing the bowl and sitting down on the floor, cross legged. Rowan set Idiot down who scampered over to join the other five. Behind Rowan, Claire had walked to the kitchen entrance with Maisie peering from behind her.

The six hatchlings crowded around Murder. One jumped onto his shoulder in order to try and get into the bowl; its claws dug into his shoulder hard enough to make him bleed. He swatted it off with the back of his hand before making a short whistle and setting the bowl into his lap. Rather than piling into the bowl, the six quieted down and waited.

“They don’t get to eat till he says so.” Rowan explained to Owen, knowing the man had a thousand and one burning questions.

Murder scooped up a handful of meat chunks with one hand and used the other to toss them to the hatchlings. Some of them caught the meat, others didn’t and dived for the chunks as soon as it hit the floor. Idiot just got a meat chunk shoved into his open mouth. Unlike the others who were quite active, he remained by Murder’s hip in order to be hand fed.

Two of the hatchlings began a tug of war over a larger chunk of meat that started escalating into something a slight bit more serious. Murder’s solution was to pluck the chunk of meat out of their mouths and pop it into his own before giving each of them a more appropriate sized chunk.

“Murder, man, could you not? We have guests.” Rowan lightly scolded, knowing that it probably wouldn’t matter.

“Then make breakfast or I’ll finish what they don’t eat. I’m hungry.”

While neither Owen or Claire were very surprised since they knew a bit more about Murder’s…Habits, Maisie just looked ill. Rowan just sighed and started taking orders for breakfast before he started pulling out pans. He only paused to give Murder a damp papertowel so he could clean six different muzzles. Now and then, Murder paused to poke at a tooth.

“Terry might need that one tooth removed. He’s got another coming in and he’s being nippy about that side.” Murder commented as he got up to put the bowl up and wash his hands. Behind him, the Indoraptors began to pile up on each other for a post breakfast nap. All except Idiot.

He slowly moved his head from side to side, tilting it in all different directions as he sniffed the air. Finally, he honed in on one of the new comers. Maisie. She was quietly eating an apple slice that Rowan had given her to tide her over till breakfast was done. The clattering of claws on the floor caused her to look down at the hatchling who stood up to paw at her leg. She sucked in a deep breath and screamed.

Owen spun around and grabbed her, yanking her away from Idiot who’d stood up as tall as he could. Murder and Rowan looked from Maisie who was now hiding behind Claire, to Idiot, to the Indopile who were making sleepy confused sounds.

“…Idiot, please don’t…” Murder mumbled.

Idiot stared, wide eyed, before he inhaled, opened his mouth and began spamming the most Godawful shrieking noise known to mankind. Unfortunately, it caused four hatchlings to scramble into similar stances and spam the same noise. Number five simply remained laying down, but also shrieked.

Murder made an exasperated noise and scooped up a still shrieking Idiot and shoved him into Owen’s arms. “Hold him like a baby and rub his stomach.”

Rowan was already trying to calm down the other hatchlings and was quickly joined by Murder. Owen was left with Idiot who had started clinging to his shirt. He hesitantly did as instructed, which surprisingly, caused the hatchling to shut up and burrow down into his arms with a quiet warble. With Idiot quiet, the other five sort of trailed off in confusion which allowed Murder and Rowan to move them into a playpen. There, the Indopile was reformed amidst sleepy chirps. Rowan retrieved Idiot from Owen and gave the three an apologetic look.

“Sorry. They’re all curious, but if he gets startled he’ll send everyone into a fit.” Rowan apologized as he set Idiot on the pile.

“One of these days I’ll just duct tape his mouth shut.” Murder grumped while he went to tend to breakfast. This earned him a collective glare from both Owen and Rowan.

“He’s a baby.” Owen noted and Claire could only sigh at how the former raptor trainer had already been taken by the little terrors.

“He’s a spastic loudmouth…Like Rowan.”

“…Hahah.” Rowan wasn’t amused.

When breakfast was done, the five sat down to eat. Murder hung out by the backdoor and Rowan sat in the recliner while the three guests took the couch; Maisie sat between Claire and Owen. She kept giving the two hybrids wary glances. Rowan was a lot warmer and outgoing than Murder; he was all scowls and bland expressions. In short, scary. It didn’t help that she _knew_ what the two were. Sure, they’d helped to take down the Indoraptor, but still. They terrified her.

After Murder finished eating, he set his plate on the counter and simply slipped out the backdoor without a word. Claire sent Rowan a questioning look.

“He…Honestly doesn’t really like guests. Doesn’t really like people. I think it has to do with all the time alone on Sorna. So, don’t expect him to hang around the house that much.” Then Rowan shrugged, “Or I could be completely wrong and he’s going hunting.”

Owen snorted loudly, “Doesn’t like guests is an understatement. First time I was here, he about threw me in the floor.”

Claire wasn’t happy about that and gave the two a disapproving look as she gestured at Maisie who’d huddled against her side. Rowan made an uncomfortable sigh.

“I…Look. He’s not a bad guy, honest. He’s just got some issues, but he’s gotten a lot better since he took off.”

“Yeah, about that Rowan. What was that about and how can you do the whole…Murder thing, now?” Owen gestured at the other man’s eyes, prompting him to glance away for a moment.

Rowan wasn’t a fan of his eyes being pointed out, but at least the existence of theater contacts made it easy to explain them away. Otherwise, it would have been hell to explain why he had red, reptilian eyes. “It’s a complex mess. Basically, we were all wrapped up in trying to figure out what to do with Murder after the park went to hell…Either where to send him or how to protect him. We…Knew he was smart but we just kept underestimating him. The whole speaking issue he had? Combination of being alone for a decade and then having to stay as a raptor for as long as he did.”

“His speech skills rusted.” Claire commented.

“And wires got crossed.” Owen finished, prompting Rowan to nod.

“Right. So, while we were trying to figure shit out, we never thought to ask him what he wanted. Pissed him off and so he took off for a year and a half while I hunted him back down.” Rowan was honestly hesitant to talk about the other question.

“That doesn’t explain how you can change like him now.” Owen pressed.

Rowan sighed, “Okay, look. I don’t know the sciencey part of it. You’d have to ask Kaitlyn. But the gist is, some sort of chicken pox was used to change him. She said that it’s still in his system, but it’s in an…Inactivate state, I think her wording was. But severe stress can reactivate it.”

Owen sighed and rubbed his forehead, “The park…When he was stressed because he had nothing to do. Does that mea–“

“No. It doesn’t work like chickenpox. It happened when he accidentally nipped me.” Rowan’s fingers traced over the ridged mess of scars that covered his right forearm. He’d been lucky; the arm had nearly been unsalvageable and had almost been amputated. “Kaitlyn thinks my immune system was too strong for the virus to make me sick, so I became a carrier till _I_ stressed with him taking off.”

“And then you…” Owen gestured, but Rowan shook his head.

“No, I started getting sick and Kaitlyn ran some tests. Shoved me on some anti-viral for chickenpox. It worked…For a while, but it slowly stopped working and I was starting to get sick from the high doses of the medicine I needed. Around that time, I found Murder and…Well.” Rowan shrugged, “Here I am. It worked out in the end, I think.”

Claire hesitated for a moment. The whole thing was somewhat awkward to talk about. How did one even really approach something like this? It felt wholly too personal to ask about. “So…You can do everything he can?”

Rowan nodded, “Yeah. I just don’t have any of his quirks that were brought on by being on the island. He…Murder was 11 when it happened. He’s 31 now.”

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that Murder had spent more of his life being a hybrid than he had a human. Between that and the knowledge of him spending a decade by himself, it was relatively easy for both Owen and Claire to understand why Murder was so ‘weird’.

With the general atmosphere having turned dark, Rowan suddenly changed the subject. “Well, there’s still biscuits if anyone wants any, and lemme show you guys to the spare bedroom. Maisie looks like she’s about to fall asleep any minute now.”

Claire looked down at the girl who was struggling to keep her eyes open. “We’ve been driving since last night to get here.”

Rowan nodded and got up to walk to the hallway. There, he pointed out where the spare bedroom was, where the bathroom was, and then he pulled spare sheers out of the closet. “Incase you want to change the sheets on the bed. Beyond that…” He shrugged, “Help yourself to what’s in the house. Just…Don’t open the bottom left draw in the fridge unless you want to see dead stuff. That’s where Murder puts extra food he hunts for the hatchlings.”

Afterwards, he excused himself to go put up the food and dishes. A few moments later, Owen leaned against the wall that led into the kitchen. “And all this time, I thought you were just wearing contacts. Never suspected a thing. Why’d you lie to me?”

This made Rowan sigh and look down at the dishes he was rinsing off. “…I was scared, alright? Kaitlyn was the only one I felt I could trust…With all of it.”

“Christ, Rowan. You’re my friend, especially with all the shit we dealt with concerning Murder.”

“I know. I know, Owen. It’s…I don’t know how to describe it.” Rowan looked down at the plate in his hands before turning to put it into the dishwasher. “…I nearly died. I…Didn’t want to be around anyone when I changed because I didn’t know what would happen. Look. It’s over and done.”

Owen was about to say something when a sleepy sounding chirp came from next to his feet. One of the Indoraptor hatchlings had meandered in to see what was going on. After a moment, he crouched down to examine it before looking to Rowan. “They worry me.”

“Because of what the original did?”

The hatchling sniffed of Owen before scampering off, but he looked up and nodded at the question. Rowan shrugged, “They’re not like him. They all have their own personalities.”

Owen watched the hatchling pull itself onto the coffee table where it began pawing at the contents of a cardboard box beside the table. “What are their names?”

Rowan immediately perked up and briefly left the kitchen to go grab his phone. Once he returned, he motioned Owen over. “Murder was pretty pissed when he found out about them, so about the only way I could calm him down was by letting him name most of them. He picked names from some damn show he likes. Hellsing something.”

As he flipped through the pictures, most of them group pictures, he talked about the hatchlings. “Terry is the one with the light grey stripe. He’s pretty timid and likes hiding behind Pip. Pip’s that one, with the brown stripe. He’s an attention hog who’ll climb in you lap…That’s the one that was on Murder’s shoulder. Jan has the red stripe, and he’s the one to watch for. He’s very pushy, vocal, and kinda nippy. If any of them cause trouble, it’ll be him. Luke has the blue stripe. He hangs out with Jan most of the time, and is a lot more reserved. Usually keeps Jan in line. Alex is the one you just saw, with the white stripe. He’s the leader of the group and is usually the one that gets everyone yelling if he thinks whatever Idiot is going on is worth going off about. Aaaand…Idiot is the only one without a stripe.”

Owen couldn’t help but grin at all the pictures. Most of them involved the hatchlings doing silly things and he was reminded of how he’d bug people with pictures of his girls. His grin faltered at the memory of Charlie, Delta, and Echo. Sure, Blue was still alive…Somewhere. He could only hope nothing happened to her.

Something clawed at his pant leg and he looked down to see Alex with a rope dog toy in his mouth. The toy was dropped at Owen’s feet and the hatchling made a soft purring noise while looking up at him expectantly.

“…Tug-o-war or fetch?” Owen asked as he slowly sat down on the floor while Rowan flipped a chair around to sit in it.

“Hold it up and wiggle it. If he backs up, it’s fetch. If he tries to grab it, tug-o-war.”

Owen gave the other man a wary look before doing as instructed. Thirty seconds later, he was engrossed in a very serious gave of tug-o-war with Alex making as fierce sounding growls as he could. In reality, Owen was ten seconds way from cracking up. Exactly two minutes later, the other five had woken up and were climbing all over his lap. True to Rowan’s word, Jan was the troublemaker and nipped his arm.

Rowan leaned down to pinch Jan’s flank, resulting in a surprised squawk from the hatchling. He spun around to hiss at Rowan who made a low growl. Almost immediately, all the hatchling but Alex backed up. Alex promptly headbutted Jan in the ass to knock him closer to Rowan. Before Jan could recover, he got a sharp flick on the nose by Rowan. After a second, he flopped on his side and showed his stomach.

Finally, Rowan scooped him up and gave him a bit of a glare. “He doesn’t pull shit with Murder, but he once grabbed his hand, sunk his claws in, and bit him during feeding time. Murder smacked him half way to the table.”

“That’s…” Owen wasn’t really sure what to call it. These weren’t the raptors he raised. “I want to say…Harsh? But could you explain to me about how you disciplined him?”

“Murder’s the alpha. For Jan to be so aggressive towards him, isn’t a good sign. We’re both very aware of what their predecessor did. I’m…Hoping that was from his upbringing.” Rowan looked down at Jan who was being a bit huffy. “It was basically to take the place of nipping his flank and face. Since Alex is higher ranked than him, he was basically being disciplined by two different raptors.”

“So…If Murder’s the alpha. You’re the beta?”

Rowan’s jaw snapped shut and he very nearly glared at Owen. “We’re both the alpha.”

“You just called Murder the alpha.”

“I…Well…I’m the alpha he’s just a bit more alpha-ier.” Rowan sputtered out.

“…So…The beta.”

Rowan glared at this point and hunched up his shoulders a bit. “Yeah, alright, fine. Yes.”

For whatever reason, Owen just found Rowan’s reaction to be hilarious. Still, he went back to the pile of hatchlings in his lap. “They’re gentle. They don’t really bite or try to claw me.”

“We taught them early on that humans are squishy and to be gentle. We both ended up bloody the first few days.” Rowan finally set Jan down who slinked back over to Owen. “They get a lot rougher with each other.”

To say that Owen was quietly gushing over the hatchlings would have been an understatement. He had no problem with helping Rowan with them, since, after all…Him, Claire, and Maisie had essentially shown up on the doorstep without warning. It was the least he could do. While he wasn’t really surprised, neither Claire or Maisie were really thrilled with the idea of the hatchlings having the run of the house despite Rowan’s reassurements of: no, they won’t eat you and yes, they’re house broken.

When dinner rolled around, Murder hadn’t returned yet. Claire had noticed this and once dinner was finished, brought it up to Rowan. “I’m sorry for us just dropping in on you. I hope we’re not causing to much of an issue, especially with Murder…”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. This is pretty normal for him. Even before the Murderettes showed up. Sometimes he’ll just get a hair up his ass and take off to roam all day. He’ll probably get back sometime tonight. If he’s not back by morning, I’ll go looking for him.”

Thankfully, Murder enjoyed watching cartoons and various tv shows from the 90s. So, Rowan had been able to find something out of the collection that Maisie enjoyed. It seemed to help her relax a bit, something the girl seemed to desperately need. However, she was still very unsettled at the idea of the hatchlings. So, Owen elected to sleep on the couch to keep an eye on them. This idea helped a bit, but she still insisted on the bedroom door being shut. Rowan assured her that the six didn’t know how to open doors and wouldn’t have an easy time with the round doorknobs.

With a blanket and pillow in hand, Owen settled on the couch to sleep. It was strange sleeping in someone else’s home. Everything always smelled different. In the case of Murder and Rowan’s house, there was an undertone of raptor. Then there were the sounds. He could faintly hear insects and nightbirds outside. In the corner was the soft rasps and occasional snuffling noise of the Indoraptors all piled up on each other. It wasn’t all that bad, truth be told.

It was the quiet, whimpery chirps that woke Owen up, but the sound didn’t come from the pile of hatchlings. Instead, it came from the kitchen. He rolled over on the couch, and could see the faint outline of someone standing by the kitchen sink. In the low light, he briefly saw the glow of reflective eyes. Then there was a second sound: a low, rumbling purr. Almost like a cat purring from the other side of the room. The soft chirps quieted. He dragged a hand down his face and got up to shuffle into the kitchen without waking the ‘Murderettes’.

“Murder?” He didn’t think it was Rowan.

“What?” The rumbling faded before the light behind Murder was flipped on.

Owen squinted for a moment at the light. The hybrid stood there, holding Idiot in one arm. The hatchling had its arms wrapped tightly around his forearm and had the side of its head pressed against his chest. While the pupils constricted from the light, the youngster doesn’t otherwise seem bothered by the light.

“What’s wrong?” Owen rubbed his eye and yawned as he sat down in a chair.

“He doesn’t like the dark.” Murder looked down and ran a thumb down Idiot’s back.

Owen couldn’t help but snort, “Considering the original Indoraptor, I’m surprised.”

Murder wasn’t amused. “They drove him insane with their training. Before we attacked, we tried to talk to him, but half the sounds he made didn’t make sense. They were jumbled. It wasn’t a species barrier, either. Neither of us have issues with the Murderettes.”

“When they brought him out on display, they were shocking him. If that was normal…” Owen looked down. If that was the case, it was likely a kindness that the hybrid had been killed. He looked up when Murder resumed the low purr. It seemed to sooth the noises Idiot made. “What’s his issue, anyway? He doesn’t act like the others.”

“He’s mostly blind. He does alright outside or in well lit areas like the kitchen. He can see things move and vague shapes, but in low lighting like the living room or at night…” Murder shrugged slightly.

“He’s blind.” Owen got up to peer at Idiot.

“Right. He has good hearing, and most of the alarm screeching is because he’s gotten himself lost and panicked. But it gets the others going which just upsets him even worse. Rowan’s trying to teach him a different call for when he’s lost, but he just panics easily.”

Owen frowned heavily and lightly ran his thumb over Idiot’s head, prompting the hatchling to made a sleepy chirp. “So why don’t you rename him?”

“Eh, he answers to it. We didn’t know about him having his eyesight issue till a few days ago. It’s basically an ongoing joke that he’s stupid…But he’s honestly not.” With Idiot successfully soothed, Murder simply gave Owen a slight nod before returning the hatchling to the pile and padding off to bed.


	2. Life with Raptors

Owen hadn’t been entirely sure what to expect when he’d made the decision to crash at Murder and Rowan’s house. Sure, he’d been there a handful of times, but at most? He usually just stayed the weekend before he felt he had worn out his welcome. It wasn’t because of Rowan, oh no. Rowan _loved_ company. He was the sort that would talk someone’s ear off while dragging them all through the house to jabber about improvements that he’d made. Then it’d be off to wander the property to listen to Rowan’s plans for that, only for it to be followed up by Rowan going ‘Jesus Christ, been here two hours and I didn’t offer you coffee’.

No…It was because of Murder. Murder was moody at the best of times, wasn’t a big talker, and seemed to have a perpetual resting bitch face that only changed when he was scowling. There was always a sort of electrical tension around him, much like the tension before a hellacious storm. Rowan claimed Murder wasn’t as bad as he seemed and most of his ‘talking’ was done through body language. Owen supposed there was some unspoken hints that Rowan was able to pick up, but he found himself tense, most of the time, around Murder. It didn’t matter that he’d known him for a few years…The man had the similar presence of a bored lion who was trying to decide if it’d be worth putting forth the effort to eat someone.

And then Maisie had been thrown into the equation, which only made things worse. The nine-year-old was nothing short of traumatized over what she’d seen at the manor. Owen honestly didn’t trust Murder around her, with everything he knew about the man. As human as he looked, he was still a dangerous predator. The Indoraptor had come close to the same danger level, but Owen imagined that was also due to it sharing some of Murder’s genes. While it had clearly been based off the Indominus, he wasn’t entirely sure if the raptor portion of it had come from Murder or from Velociraptor. Either way, it’d gotten Murder’s sharp intelligence.

Of course, just being around Murder, he saw the Indoraptor had also gotten some of the personality traits. Murder was unpredictable, easily irritated, and had a temper…Which was exactly why Owen was worried about him being around Maisie. It didn’t help that according to Rowan, kids shrieking kicked Murder’s prey drive into gear.

Rowan had uncomfortably explained how it was very similar to something injured crying out. The sound affected him, as well, but not nearly as bad as it did Murder. Much like Owen, he shared the same concerns about Murder, but not as severely. “I don’t _think_ he’ll do anything. The only time I seriously saw him got riled up over it was right after we got back from Jurassic World and we were still in the ‘burbs. Neighbor had a birthday party or something and there was a bunch of kids running around shrieking. I haven’t seen him do that since…But I’ll keep an eye on him.”

Claire quietly brought concerns to Owen, mostly the interaction between Rowan and Murder. She knew a bit about things between the two, but not as much as he did. So, he explained to her about what he knew. Sure, the relationship Rowan and Murder had seemed almost abusive from the outside. There was constant verbal arguing and insults…And the fact the one or both of them often bore bruises of some type. For a good while, he thought that Murder was straight up being abusive towards Rowan. Considering his temper, it wasn’t entirely out of the question. It didn’t help that anytime he brought it up to Rowan out of concern, the man would sputter, vague out some answer, and change the subject. All and all, it threw up a billion red flags.

This hadn’t been the case. Not by a long shot. Owen had decided to drop by unexpectedly one day, and since the door was unlocked, simply walked in. The living room and kitchen area had been an absolute mess. A broken, bloody glass in the sink. Fresh claw marks on the wall, a bloody handprint, and more blood…Along with a trail of blood that led to the bedroom. Owen, honest to God, had thought that Murder had finally snapped and mauled Rowan. So, he followed the trail, certain that he’d find Rowan’s remains. Instead, he found the two, bloody and on the floor from where they’d fallen off the bed.

No, almost all the blood had been the result of a very…Vigorous bout of morning sex. As it turned out, some of the blood had been a result of Murder cutting himself picking up the broken glass, but the rest of it was because Murder was a biter and Rowan liked being bitten. This had been information that Owen could have gone his entire life without knowing. Still, it helped ease his worries about having a potential domestic situation on his hands after Rowan sheepishly assured him that all the bruises the two usually had was the result of a very active intimate life.

Honestly, now that he knew about Rowan’s hybrid state, it answered a lot of questions…Mostly how Rowan had managed not to bleed to death. Claire was thoroughly amused at Owen’s recounting of finding the two buck-naked in the floor and his subsequent mental scarring for life. However, it relieved her concerns a bit since she had similar thoughts as he once had and was about ready to demand they leave, for Maisie’s sake.

Despite it all, Owen was surprised at how…Domestic things were, even with the hatchlings running around. On the third day of being there, he’d wandered out of the bathroom after a shower with the plans of running to the store. When he reached the living room, he had to pause. Murder and Rowan were standing in front of the sliding glass door, presumably watching the Indoraptor hatchlings. Rowan was sipping his coffee and lazily leaning against Murder while making sleepy noises. Murder then gently ruffled the back of Rowan’s head, prompting the man to tilt his head back and make a sound suspiciously like a throaty purr. Owen decided to quietly slip out the front door so he didn’t ruin what was clearly a private moment.

When he returned, Claire and Maisie were up, eating breakfast. Murder was sitting on the floor by the sliding glass door with Terry in his lap. The hatchling had one side of his head pressed into a hand towel and was making whimpery noises while Murder stroked his neck.

“What happened?” Owen set the bags he carried on the counter.

“Had to pull one of his baby teeth. Another was starting to come in and the gum was getting infected.” Murder replied with a frown as he gently examined the other side of the hatchling’s head. “Rowan? Get me some ice, will you?”

Honestly, seeing Murder concerned like this was something Owen had only seen a few times before. All of the other instances had involved Rowan. When Rowan held out a chunk of ice to Owen, he passed it to Murder as he crouched down. While he knew what the hatchling was, he couldn’t help but feel an edge of concern for its wellbeing. “He’ll be alright?”

Murder took the ice to wrap it up in the towel before pressing Terry’s head, gently, against it. “Should be. He just probably won’t really want to eat much tonight, but I’ll cut something up special for him to bribe him into eating. They all have their little health problems, but I guess Wu hadn’t quite figured things out.”

“Probably more trying to see what worked the best. I just hope they grow out of it.” Rowan commented as he slid a plate of food towards Owen who nodded his thanks.

Murder gently set Terry down who then let out an upset warble before climbing back into his lap and attempted to climb up his torso. He sighed and boosted the hatchling up to his shoulder where Terry wrapped himself around Murder’s neck and buried his head under his shirt. This only made the hybrid sigh, but he didn’t complain about the still whimpering growth on his shoulders. Instead, he went to work on making himself a plate of food. “Yeah, he’s not going outside today.”

Maisie quietly slipped out of the chair she was in to put her plate in the sink. She skirted around Murder and tried to give him a wide berth, seemingly preferring to keep things or people between them. “Can I watch tv?”

Rowan felt sorry for the girl. What had happened at the manor had very clearly affected her, “Yeah. Sure. If you need help getting the DVD player set up, let me know.”

Rather than replying, she just went to the couch to find something to watch. Rowan gave Owen and Claire a concerned look. After finishing breakfast, Claire brought up to Owen about how the three of them needed to buy more clothes. They both only had what they wore, though Rowan had let Owen borrow some…And Maisie only had a few things she’d managed to grab.

Claire moved to sit down beside Maisie, “Hey…We’re going to go to the store to get new clothes.”

“I don’t really…” Maisie started as she looked back to tv, clearly enjoying the show she was watching, but Murder moving out of the corner of her eye caused her to look towards him with a flicker of fear on her face.

Murder caught the glance and managed to untangle Terry from his neck to pass him to Rowan. “Going hunting.”

Rowan took the hatchling and gave the other man a look of bemusement as he walked out of the house. “I don’t mind babysitting, if she doesn’t want to go to the store. Clothes shopping is boring. I was just going to make banana bread for tonight.”

Maisie glanced between Owen and Claire before looking to Rowan, “…Could we make cookies?”

“Yeah, sure. It’d just be peanut butter or oatmeal.” Rowan offered her a gentle smile, “Assuming we don’t just eat all the cookie batter…Because I know I’m not the only one who thinks it tastes better than the actual cookie.”

For the first time since the incident at the manor, Maisie smiled. It was a small one, but a smile nonetheless. However, it faded when Terry moved. Rowan looked down at the hatchling, then back to her. “You honestly don’t have to worry about him. He’s too busy not feeling good.”

Finally, she looked to Owen and Claire, “I’ll…Stay here.”

“Alright. Guess it’s settled.” Owen gave a slight shrug. “We’ll be back in a few hours.”

Claire didn’t seem to share his optimism, but trusted Rowan enough to look out for Maisie. Once the two had left, Rowan managed to get Terry to curl up on the heating pad. After he washed his hands, it was down to the very serious business of making cookies. As it turned out, Maisie had a love for dinosaurs and Rowan immediately pounced on that topic as a means to draw her out of her shell. His time at Jurassic World working as an enclosure cleaner and then later Murder’s ‘handler’ proved invaluable. However, he had picked up that she was scared of the other hybrid, so he avoided talking about him for the time being.

“…And so the Gallimimus were basically my favorite hatchlings in the park because they ran around like giant doofs. Half the time, they’d run into each other and end up in this giant tangled mess. They weren’t really the brightest things in the park.”

Maisie grinned at the story before popping a piece of peanut butter cookie in her mouth. “What was the smartest dinosaur?”

Rowan hesitated for a moment, “Depends on if you mean the naturally occurring ones or not.”

Her grin faltered, “There were more…Like…” She glanced at the heating pad where Terry was sleeping.

“Not…Like him, or the Indoraptor…They made the Indominus rex first…Well. No, she wasn’t the first. She was far from the first, she was just the first, officially.” Rowan picked up a cookie for himself.

“What were the others?”

“People who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Uh…Murder was one of them.” The topic was sensitive and he had to tread lightly so that he didn’t cause her to withdraw again.

“He was human?”

“At one time, yeah. He hasn’t told me the whole story but, from what he _has_ told me? He was basically a kid when some insane scientist used him as a guinea pig. Wasn’t much older than you.” Rowan looked down at his cookie, but hadn’t taken a bite of it yet.

Maisie picked at her half-eaten cookie, “…He scares me.”

“He tends to have that effect on people. He’s seriously not as bad as people think. Just…People take him at face value and that’s it.” He was about to continue when the sound of rapid fire Indoraptor barks came from the porch. Rowan got up to see what the fuss was about and sighed when he saw Murder in his raptor form, dangling some chunk of meat for the hatchlings to eat. From behind him, Maisie made a soft, choked noise of fear.

Rowan turned around and crouched down beside her. “Hey. Hey. It’s alright. He’s all big and scary looking, I know…But he’s not going to hurt you.” At least, Rowan didn’t think so.

Maisie didn’t seem to be convinced and simply stared, wide eyed, at Murder…Then made a quiet squeak when he _looked_ at her.

“You saw him being all mean and scary, yeah? Would…It help if I take you out there and let you see him better? I promise I’ll tell him to go away if he’s too scary.” It was really the only thing Rowan could think of to do. Things weren’t going to get better otherwise and Murder wouldn’t be happy having to tiptoe around.

She turned a few shades paler and glanced back out to Murder who was currently carefully stepping around the Indoraptors who crowded around his feet. Finally, she closed her eyes and sighed, then focused back on Rowan to wordlessly nod.

“Here.” He offered her his hand and once she’d taken it, began gently leading her out the door. When the hatchlings noticed, one of them barked, prompting the rest to stand at attention. However, a soft, barely audible rumble from Murder caused the hatchlings to scamper under him.

Several times, Maisie balked and it took Rowan a bit to coax her back into walking. As they approached, Murder leaned down so that he wasn’t towering over them and used a hand to help balance himself. This action caused her to freeze.

“It’s alright, Maisie.” Rowan stood beside her and looked down at her, but her eyes were glued on the raptor in front of her.

“The other one did that.”

“I know. They sorta based it off him. You’re fine…Promise.”

With more coaxing, they were finally standing in front of Murder who’d barely moved or made a sound. Maisie almost looked ready to bolt. Rowan crouched down next to her. “You can touch him, if you ask.”

“…How?” Her voice trembled.

“By…Well…Asking.” Rowan gave a slight laugh. “But…Here.”

He gently took her hand and held it slightly above Murder’s nose. “Raptors talk different than humans. The head is sort of a spot you don’t go right up to touch, not like say…A dog. You have to ask. It’s sort of a blind spot.”

She gave a slight nod and held her hand there, fingers trembling. Then, squeaked when Murder touched his nose to her hand, then tilted his head down so that her hand ran up his snout and between his eyes. Slowly, she started running her hand up and down his head. Rowan gave her a grin. “See? He’s not so ba–“

Rowan was abruptly cut off by Murder closing his eyes and purring. This made him roll his eyes nearly hard enough for them to fall out of his head. It was entirely an act to get Maisie to calm down, and he knew it: Murder honestly didn’t like his head being touched. “Shush. I can’t hear myself think, you giant dork.”

Murder’s purr sputtered out with a slight grumble. Rowan scritched under his jaw and looked over at Maisie who was giving the hatchlings a wary look. At least the five were behaving. Since the other hybrid was also behaving… ”Want to sit on his back?”

Maisie gave him an uncertain look while Murder rolled his eyes and then sighed. Rowan knew that the other male would probably gripe at him for putting him through all this, but it seemed to be working to calm a lot of the girl’s fears. Finally, she nodded.

“Juuust a sec.” Rowan made a sharp whistle, snapped his fingers, and pointed at the porch. The five hatchlings made various sounds and darted off to the porch where someone started a game of wrestling. Then, he boosted Maisie up onto Murder’s back. Because the hybrid was leaning down, she nearly fell forward over Murder’s shoulder. Rowan grabbed her shoulder to balance her and keep her from falling off. “Careful there. Get your balance. If you’ve ever been on a horse, he ain’t like that.”

Rather than sitting on him, because of how big he was, Maisie simply ended up sort of perching on him and used her hands to help her balance. Rowan held onto her lower leg and hip to catch her in case she lost her balance and fell. “You good? Ready for him to stand up?”

Maisie nodded after a moment. While she was still scared, her curiosity needed to be satisfied. Besides, Rowan had been right so far. Rowan nudged Murder with his elbow and mumbled ‘stand up’. Slowly, the hybrid shifted his weight and stood up. Despite being somewhat prepared, Maisie still made a noise of surprise at the sudden change in height and gave Rowan a concerned look.

“It’s alright, I’m here. I’ll catch you if you fall.”

“I think Owen and Claire are back.” Maisie commented, softly.

Rowan made a slightly nervous laugh at this news, “Oh, God. I think Claire will kill me. Pretty sure Owen would demand to have a ride next.”

Maisie couldn’t help but giggle at the mental image of the former raptor trainer perched on top of Murder. While she didn’t know Owen to the degree that Rowan did, the idea that the man would ask was one that she could absolutely see…Especially with how he had basically started fawning over the hatchlings the day they arrived.

“…Owen…Am I seeing things or is Maisie _sitting_ on Murder’s back?” Claire stood at the backdoor while Owen went to take the things they’d bought to the guest bedroom. However, her question caused him to quickly return and peer over her shoulder.

“…Huh. Yup. Looks like she’s having fun.”

Claire was absolutely not amused and with some hesitance, slipped past the napping hatchlings. Mostly, she was concerned about Maisie falling off, but as she got closer, it was obvious that Rowan was supporting her. At least she seemed to have gotten over some of her fear. “I hope Rowan didn’t just throw you up there.”

Maisie shook her head, “I asked.”

“Well, since the fun police are here, time to get down.” Rowan teased and then helped Maisie down.

Owen was silent for a long moment, “Well. Since we’re doing raptor rides, can I have one?”

“Sorry, Owen, but I’m the only guy allowed to ride him.” Rowan replied with a slight eyebrow wiggle.

Claire had been getting a drink of water from the bottle she’d brought with her and promptly choked from laughing at Rowan’s response. Owen could only roll his eyes and mutter out ‘Jesus Christ’ while Murder made his raptor laugh. Maisie felt she’d missed the joke entirely and just had a look of confusion.

Finally, Murder turned with a rumble and started walking back towards the woods. Once she was sure he was out of earshot, Maisie looked up at Rowan, “He’s still pretty scary.”

Rowan just offered her a slight smile. He really couldn’t deny that Murder _was_ scary at times. Finally, he looked to Owen and Claire, “Well, we got the cookies made and we managed to cook most of the cookie dough instead of eating it.”

Murder didn’t wander back till later that evening and when he had, was immediately directed to the take out Chinese that Owen and Claire had bought. Neither had been sure on what he liked, but he just shrugged and sat down to eat what had been bought for him. However, he was still annoyed at Rowan’s earlier antics. Owen, naturally, saw fit to bring it up.

“So…How much of earlier was your idea and how much was Rowan’s?”

“It was entirely Rowan’s idea…I wasn’t asked.” Murder sent the man in question a bit of a glare.

“You _purred_. I figured you were in a non-bitchy mood and ran with it.”

“Probably because the kid is terrified of me and I was trying to convince her I wasn’t going to bite her head off…But I’d prefer if you’d ask me first.” He replied before shoveling some rice into his mouth.

Already, Owen kind of regretted bringing it up with how it seemed to make Murder grumpy. Claire had just decided to stay out of what was likely going to be another bickering match. The two seemed to have them frequently and she wasn’t entirely sure that they actually got along that well, despite what Owen said.

“I’unno. Maybe I should start charging for rapt– Gah!” Rowan was cut off mid-sentence by Murder throwing a wadded-up napkin at him. He glared at the other man. “Oh, bite me, you immature asshole.”

“I would, but you’d enjoy it and scream.” Murder deadpanned and a faint hint of a shit eating grin formed on his face at the bright shade of red that Rowan’s face turned.

Owen snorted loudly while Claire covered her mouth to muffle her laughter so that she wouldn’t wake Maisie up in the guest bedroom. Murder wasn’t done, however. “You’ll excuse him. He get’s bitchy when he hasn’t gotten fu–“

This time, it was Rowan’s turn to throw something, a pillow, at Murder’s head. Murder batted the pillow out of the air where it landed in the floor and looked fairly annoyed. “And I’m the immature one?”

“You’re the one who started it.” Rowan retorted but then made a slight squawk when Murder abruptly got up, grabbed his arm, and dragged him out of the house.

The humor of the whole thing fell away and Claire gave Owen a concerned look, “I really worry about them. One of these days, Rowan’s going to goad Murder too much.”

Unlike Claire, Owen wasn’t worried in the least bit. “Nah. They’re either going hunting or…Well, they’re both going to have injuries in the morning.” He made a slight sexual gesture with his hands to emphasis what he meant.

“I don’t know, Owen. They just really don’t seem to get along. I know what you told me yesterday, but…” She glanced at the back door.

“You’re putting a human spin on things, Claire. They’re…Not.” Owen sighed and turned to face her a bit. “In the usual pack dynamics, a raptor pack is led by an alpha female, there’s an alpha male, but he’s subordinate to the female. All the packs I saw on Sorna were that way. Basically, the two share control of the pack. She gives the orders, he enforces. So…Because they’re ‘raptors’, Murder and Rowan have the same thing going on…Except…”

“They’re both male.” Claire finished.

“Bingo. It’s not really an ideal situation. Now, sometimes young male raptors who’ve been kicked out of their pack will form loose packs, similar to the bachelor prides that lions will do…But these tend to have a lot of infighting as everyone vies for the leadership position. So, you’re sort of seeing the same thing with Murder and Rowan when they verbally argue except that’s where the human bit comes in. Technically, Murder’s the alpha and Rowan’s the sub-alpha since they’re…Uh, involved. So…It’s really complicated. They really do care about each other, and I pity anyone who screws with either one of them.” The tone in his voice hinted that he had a story behind his last statement.

“Two questions…First…Why are you so touchy about them being in a relationship?” Claire turned to lean against the arm of the couch after tucking a pillow behind her back.

“I spent the night and got woke up by them having sex. I heard sounds I never wanted to hear.”

“Oh, God.” Claire laughed, “Alright, I can understand that. Second question, then. How do you know they care for each other? They just seem to always fight or insult each other.”

Owen sighed, “Christ, that’s a hell of a story…You remember when Murder was brought to the park? They called him Alpha.” Claire nodded. “Well, after they finished building his enclosure and he was cleared to be moved…There was an…Incident where one of the higher ranked ACU guys got…Uh…Mauled would be a very _light_ term to use.”

Claire thought for a moment, “Are you talking about Steve? I didn’t look into the details of what happened, just signed off on the death benefits for his family.”

“One and the same. Steve and his unit were assigned to Murder’s transfer since they were present for his capture and Murder tended to be really pissy when he came out of being sedated. So, we figured having people around who were experienced with him would be a good idea. Now, unknown to just about all of us, Rowan and Steve had some bad history. I’m talking ‘shank each other’ bad history. Anyway, Rowan wanted to be down there when Murder woke up, but Kaitlyn and I talked him out of it. He was leaning over the railing trying to talk to Murder and reassure him, when Steve knocked him over the railing. Figured that Murder would attack him or something. At that point, only Rowan knew about what Murder really was. Kaitlyn just assumed he was a super smart raptor and I had my suspicions about him being something else but hadn't brought it up to anyone. Well, Rowan hit the ground and didn’t move.” Owen leaned over and grabbed his drink; Claire had a slight horrified look on her face.

“Murder fucking _freaked_. Started circling and trying to get him up. The only way we could get to Rowan was by tranqing him. Rowan ended up with a broken ribs, a punctured lung, brain swelling, and the docs kept him in a coma for a few weeks. I, uh…I grabbed one of Steve’s jackets and told Murder what happened…Let him smell of the jacket so he’d have the scent. All I knew was that he knew what I was saying and one of my friends was fighting for his life after some jackoff tried to kill him. Told Murder that I’d trust him to handle things.”

“…Murder handled it?”

“Christ, Claire. He had us all fooled. Started acting like he was stressed out, and then one morning I got a call from Kaitlyn. She was completely panicked and just told me to get down to his pen. The observation window had blood all over it and a trail of it that led towards the back of the paddock. She said the video from earlier that morning showed him just bolting straight into the window, falling over, and hauling ass away. He didn’t show up for breakfast, either. So, we went looking for him with Steve and a couple of his guys in tow. Heard this sound that we knew was Murder, just this moan like he was dying. We all went to check it out, Steve headed back to the building to go call for more vets.” Owen looked down and sighed.

“Next thing we heard was him screaming. Murder had purposely split us up by acting like he was injured, then doubled back to get him. We…only found parts of Steve, he was basically unrecognizable by the time Murder was finished with him. Turns out, Murder wasn’t nearly as injured as we thought. Asshole had cut his shoulder open and just overall made things look worse than they really were.” He fiddled with the cup in his hands. “So…Yeah. They care for each other, they just keep things private, from what I’ve gathered. It’s a much different dynamic than what humans have. I don’t really understand it, but I’m not going to question it.”

Claire was quiet for a bit but finally sighed, “I…Don’t even know what to say to that. It’s…” She shook her head.

“Insane?” Owen supplied and then laughed. “I wouldn’t question it. We’re crashing at the house of two human-raptor hybrids who are currently playing parents to a bunch of genetically engineered raptors who might as well sort of be the genetic sons of one of them. Insane is kinda a way of life right now.”

“God, I’m not even 40 and I feel like I’m going to have a mid-life crisis from all this.” Claire covered her face and laughed.


	3. Learning to Talk Raptor

It was hard to tell when the two hybrids returned during the night, but when Owen woke up in the morning, their bedroom door was shut…However, that wasn’t what woke him up. It was the weight on his chest, something snuffling his face, and the light graze of teeth on his nose. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted by six sets of Indoraptor eyes. Idiot was crouched on his chest and made a soft purr when Owen gently pushed his head away. Further down, on his legs was Terry. The side of the hatchling’s face was still a bit swollen from the tooth removal, but he seemed to be doing better. Perched on the back of the couch was Pip, Alex, Luke, and Jan.

Alex tilted his head to the side before he leaned down and tilted his head up. Then, he opened his mouth wide; most would have seen it as an aggressive move…But Owen waited. Alex started chittering rapidly, but paused every five to six chitters to open his mouth wide. Shortly after he started, the other five hatchlings began doing the same thing. It wasn’t an aggressive move in the least bit: they were asking to be fed.

“Uh…” Owen glanced at the still closed bedroom door. He hadn’t actually helped with feeding besides cutting up the meat. Finally, he carefully moved Idiot and Terry off of him so he could get up to go to the kitchen. The chunk of meat in the plastic bowl in the sink was still bloody but had cooled to room temperature overnight. Also, in the bowl was some type of animal organ; liver maybe. Murder and Rowan were definitely back.

Owen had initially grossed out a bit over how things were kept…And had assumed that the cutting board and knife used for the hatchling’s food had been used for the rest of the food. Rowan had vehemently assured him otherwise. The bowl, cutting board, and knife that Murder used had all been marked with a X in sharpie. It helped that there was a container of scentless anti-bacterial wipes set on the counter.

Cutting up raw meat wasn’t anything Owen was a stranger to. He’d done it plenty for his girls until they had been big enough to be transitioned to being fed mice. However, he’d always done it in a prep-room away from them. At his feet, the six chattered and squawked with several of them climbing on top of others in an attempt to get a slight bit closer to the meat. Thankfully, none of them tried to climb up his legs; they already had sharp claws. Murder almost always bore bloody claw marks after breakfast from Pip or Jan trying to climb on him before being fed.

Claire stepped into the kitchen, but paused at the sight of Owen cutting up the meat. “You are _not_ taking one with us when we leave.”

“But they’re adorable.” Owen gave her a mock pouting look, but then shook his head. “I think Murder _and_ Rowan would attempt to maul me if I did that.”

“If you did what?” Rowan asked as he sleepily limped past Claire and beelined it to the coffeemaker.

“If Owen stole one of the Indoraptors. Rowan, you’re limping. What happened?”

Rowan checked the water and coffee in the machine before pressing the brew button. He turned around to face Claire. “Ever seen a guy take an entire fist up the ass?”

“I… _what_?” Claire looked vaguely horrified and Owen had an expression of absolutely not wanting to know any more.

“Unfortunately, that was not me.” Rowan pulled the creamer out of the fridge, but before he could continue on with his joke, Murder just had to ruin it.

“The dumbass got kicked by a bull moose last night. I hadn’t given the signal and he decided to spring the trap early.” Murder had his left arm tucked against his side, and much like Rowan, had chosen to wear sweat pants and a t-shirt. This was different than his usual jeans and shirtlessness, hinting that he had also suffered injuries during the hunt.

“My ass is not dumb. It’s technicolor.” Rowan sniffed but then suddenly yelped in pain and jerked to the side when Murder slapped his ass.

“Well, get your technicolor ass outta my way and stop hogging the damn coffee.” Murder grumbled and plucked the creamer out of Rowan’s hand to fix his own cup of coffee.

Owen could only laugh at the interaction. “So, Murder, I’m guessing you got hurt, too?”

“Rowan got the shit end, I got the business end. Fucker charged me, knocked me over, and tried to stomp me. Got a few good hits in, but Rowan managed to take him down.” Murder gingerly rubbed his shoulder. “We’re both bruised up, but we’ll live. Rowan’ll just act like he’s dying.”

“So you two don’t fully heal after you change?” Claire took a seat at the table, a bit curious.

Murder shook his head. “No. Mild injuries…Small cuts, scrapes, minor bruises…Those will heal up no problem. Deeper cuts and things? End up scabbed over but they won’t scar. Severe stuff? Those will somewhat heal, but there’ll be some injuries left over. Won’t be life threatening, but won’t be feeling too good.”

Owen handed the bowl of meat over to Murder who set his coffee cup down before sitting down to feed the hatchlings. Pip crouched down to jump onto his shoulder, but Murder leaned down and snarled at him, prompting the hatchling to make a singular alarm squawk and scamper back with the rest of the group. He wasn’t in much of a mood to have a nine-pound Indoraptor jumping onto a sore shoulder and digging its claws in. Once everyone had mostly settled, he started his usual routine of feeding them.

“Have you ever had something that didn’t heal?”

Murder actually grimaced at the question due to the memory it brought up. “Yes. I was shot in the thigh, shattered the bone and while the injury healed, the bone didn’t. Ended up having to cut my leg open to dig the bone and bullet out.” He paused to feed Terry a bite. “I was 14.”

Claire paled at this. While she knew about the general gist of Murder’s past, the man had never gone into much detail and Rowan had been hesitant to supply information. “That’s…Horrible.”

“That was life. I couldn’t really walk to an ER and point at my leg. Wasn’t the last time I had to patch myself up.” He leaned down slightly to examine Terry who was still mouthing a piece of liver. “…I’m not momma birding you. Eat your damn meat.”

Rowan snickered softly. “I mean, you already lick their faces clean after you go hunting for them.”

This caused both humans to turn their attention to Murder who only gave a one shouldered shrug. “It’s going into summer and the flies are out. The blood would attract flies.”

Maisie wandered out of the spare bedroom and gave a wary glance to Murder. While she was used to the morning feeding session, it still unnerved her a bit. At least the hatchlings were well fed and spent most of their time sleeping in a pile. Quietly, she went to the fridge to get leftover pancakes from the previous morning. Once they were heated up and floating in syrup, she headed off to the living room to continue binge watching one of the Batman cartoons.

While Murder rinsed off the bowl and cleaned up the mess, Owen leaned against the counter and thought for a moment. “So, how are you training them to listen to cues? I’ve seen you both use a combination of raptor sounds, human noises, and gestures.”

“They’re pretty smart, but they kinda have short attention spans right now.” Rowan leaned down to scoop up Terry who snuggled down to make content grunty noises. “Sort of combined the raptor sounds with human commands. So...Raptor sound followed by human command. Gestures just mimic raptor head movement since that’s how Murder and I will communicate.”

“Meaning you’re teaching them the same things you and Murder use with each other? Have you been using clickers or treats”

Rowan squinted at Owen slightly, since he had started to pick up on where the line of questioning was going. “Owen, I’m not gonna deny that you’re probably the leading expert in the world on raptor behavior and training…But you’re seriously only a human and you’re trying to tell what amounts to two raptors how to train raptors.” He gestured at Murder, “He’s been that way for twenty years. I’m pretty sure he knows a thing or two that you don’t.”

“I don’t know a damn thing.” Murder deadpanned.

This prompted Owen to send him a somewhat concerned look. However, Owen’s expression also suggested that he didn’t know if the man was joking or not. Murder wasn’t the most facially expressive of people and so it was always hard to know if he was being serious or if he was joking.

Suddenly, Murder made a short whistle followed by three rapid clicks, then he jerked his head towards Owen. The five hatchlings suddenly scrambled to their feet then lunged towards Owen while snapping their jaws and making high pitched snarls. Before they reached him, Murder made a different set of noises. A throaty grunt-snort. The five froze in their tracks, glanced at Murder, back to Owen, and then slinked to Murder. There, they stood up on their hind legs and waited patiently while sending him glances for instruction.

Owen looked startled at how well the hatchlings had responded, but then he just grinned like an idiot. “You’ve gotta teach me some of that. That was amazing.”

Claire was absolutely unsurprised. Only Owen could say something like that after being threatened by a pack of dinosaurs who were likely already dangerous enough to kill him.

Before the man could start rapid firing questions, Rowan butted in. “Actually, Owen. I was wanting to pick your brain. The anklebiters are going to be growing up pretty quickly and I was thinking about a fence. They’re going to start getting energetic soon and need to roam, but we have predators out here and they’re still small…So.”

This immediately caused Owen to get serious. “You’re wanting to know about a pen size?”

Rowan nodded and dug around on the counter for a moment before pulling over a note pad with sketches on it. There, he had different sketches of pen configurations. Several were duplicates of each other but had room for a shelter while others didn’t. “They all sleep on the porch, but if they get as big as Murder or the Original…”

“They won’t fit.”

“Right.” Rowan replied and from there, happily jabbered away with Owen about the future pen, all while holding a sleeping Terry in one arm. Claire shook her head at the two and headed for the guest bathroom to take a shower. With everyone else occupied, Murder just gathered up the remaining five Indoraptors and headed outside after putting on a pair of sneakers. It’d do them some good to go on a walk.

Maisie stared at Murder as he walked by, then focused on the hatchlings scampering after him obediently. After a moment longer, she slipped off the couch, pulled on her own shoes, and followed after him. However, she stopped at the edge of the porch. “Where are you going?”

It honestly surprised him that Maisie even spoke to him, with how she always gave him wary looks. Murder glanced up from checking over Jan, “A walk in the woods. They need to have some exercise.” As if to punctuate his statement, he prodded Alex in the gut; the hatchling flopped over on his side and batted wildly at Murder’s hand.

“You guys own all this?”

“Yes.”

She considered this for a long few moments before finally asking, hesitantly, “Can I come? I…My grandfather’s home had woods, but…I wasn’t allowed to explore.”

He paused and glanced back to her, once more surprised. Though, he supposed he shouldn’t have been. Outside of yesterday, she’d barely left the house. “If you can keep up.”

“I can.”

Murder wasn’t convinced, but he simply started walking. Behind him, the hatchlings scampered after him on all fours, but once they reached deeper grass, they shifted to their hind legs in order to see. Because of his frequent wanderings, he’d made a number of trails through the woods and planned on following one of them. It was a short loop, for him anyway, but figured it’d be a solid romp for the Indoraptors.

Once they reached the woods, the hatchlings shifted back to all fours and were more interested in snuffling around than following him. Murder made a mental note to stop midway through the walk to allow them a break and to explore. For now, he wanted them to focus on following him. He sharply whistled to get their attention back on him and lengthened his stride.

Behind him, Maisie struggled to keep up. She had expected a much leisurely pace, not one that nearly had her running. Finally, one of the many vined plants that snaked across the forest floor tripped her. She landed on the ground with a surprised yelp, which quickly turned into a scared sound when Murder grabbed her arm and dragged her up to her feet. As far as she was concerned, he looked angry. At her and was likely about to turn her into dinner. Before she could scream, she suddenly found herself piggybacking. It was just as well; her knee aches strongly from where she had landed on it.

“Knew you couldn’t keep up.” Murder grumbled.

“I tried to…” Maisie replied, quietly, but didn’t get a response.

When Claire got out of the shower, Rowan and Owen were still jabbering about raptors, but it had turned to dumb things their respective hatchlings had done. No surprise, there. Murder and the hatchlings were missing. Also, no surprise. However, what _did_ surprise her, was a missing Maisie. Considering her shoes were gone, it meant that she’d gone outside. “Did Maisie leave with Murder?”

Both Owen and Rowen looked up, then looked to the empty spot where the girl usually sat, and then looked back to Claire. Neither of them had noticed her slipping outside. Claire closed her eyes and sighed, “Rowan…”

“She’ll be fine. She’s probably just tired of staying in the house all day.” Rowan doubted that Murder would do anything to hurt her, but there was just the slightest niggling of concern.

Murder finally stopped at a small meadow. Lazily meandering through the middle of the meadow was a run off area from a nearby pond that had turned into a bit of a creek. He set Maisie down and moved to sit down on a rock in the shade of a small scrub tree so he could call the hatchlings over. Several of them were panting and simply bailed into the water to splash around. Idiot was a bit more reserved. He paused at the edge and bobbed his head a bit before daintily stepping into the water to get a drink.

After a moment of hesitation, Maisie walked to the shade and sat down on another rock a short distance away from Murder. “They don’t act like the Indoraptor.”

“No. The only one who’s similar to Jan. He’s the one with the red stripe.” Murder nodded towards the hatchling in question who was snapping at the early summer dragonflies. “If I kill any of them, it’ll be him.”

It horrified her to hear him say that with such indifference. “But…He’s…”

Murder interrupted her, “It doesn’t matter. If he shows the same traits as the Indoraptor, I’m killing him. He’ll be a danger, otherwise. I don’t want to and hope that he’s just a bullheaded shit, but…”

Maisie tucked her knees up and propped her chin up to watch the hatchlings play. Alex clambered out of the creek and stood up to bark at something in the grass. The other four stood at attention, but didn’t attack what they were looking at. Instead, Alex looked to Murder and tilted his head as he made a soft, purring snort. Murder made a low snort and jerked his head to the side. This prompted the five to dart off into the grass, rapidly chirping.

“They found a rabbit or something. I’d be surprised if they can catch it.”

“You…Can understand them, like Owen can?”

Murder scoffed, and almost felt insulted at being compared to the raptor trainer. “Owen just thinks he can. He knows some of the behavior, I’ll admit that…But he only knows the basics of the communication. It’s…” He frowned, trying to find a good analogy…Something he wasn’t good at. “Have you ever found a show in another language, and most of it is gibberish, but you hear words that sort of sound like English?”

Maisie nodded.

“That’s Owen. He’s picked up enough that he thinks he knows what he’s doing, and he knows enough to mostly get by…But it’s so complex…More than he realizes, I think.”

“I wanna know how they talk.”

Murder was surprised that she was being so chatty with him. Maybe Rowan’s antics had done something, after all. “To start off, there’s four types of sounds based on where they’re made: chest, throat, mouth, and nose. Chest and nose are more neutral, but the nose is more for emphasis. The further a sound moves up to the mouth, the more hostile, unless the mouth is closed. Excluding certain sounds. So…The same sound in two different areas has two different meanings.”

“But raptors can make a bunch of noises.”

“Yes, but that tends to be a combination of sounds. Go back to the example of a different language. Unless they pause, the words bleed into each other. Same thing.” He inhaled and made a low sound in his chest that he brought up to his mouth. In his chest, it started as a rumble, but transitioned into a growl, and then finally a snarl. “Same sound, different areas, different results, and different meanings. Content, warning, and aggressive, respectively.”

She flinched at the sound, but finally nodded. “What sounds are different?”

“Purrs, chirps, barks, and hisses. Chirps are a throat noise only; hisses and barks are throat and mouth. Purrs are the only non-aggressive raptor noise. It’s an enjoyment or affectionate noise and the intensity of the feeling depends on where it’s being produced. A chest purr is content or enjoyment while a throat purr is affectionate.” Murder opted to skip what an open mouth purr meant; she was much too young for that particular topic. “The sound Alex made, the snort purr, is more of a ‘I would enjoy doing this’. Combined with the bark, which was a ‘I see prey’ bark…He essentially said ‘I see something to hunt, and I would really enjoy hunting’. Further combining that with the head tilt? ‘I see something I would enjoy hunting, may I hunt it?’.”

Maisie listened, absolutely hooked on each nugget of information. Most of what she knew about dinosaurs had come from books, but this was something completely new. “That’s really complex.”

“It’s even more complex than that. I haven’t even touched tail and head positioning…Or body language. Owen knows a lot about raptors, but he’s only dug through the first layer.” Murder considered for a moment. “Humans aren’t able to make the same sounds Rowan and I can…But there’s a few you can mimic. I can teach you some.”

She looked towards a sudden rustling in the grass before looking back to Murder. “Would they listen?”

“Probably. If Alex listens to you, the rest will. Jan might throw a temper tantrum over it.”

Finally, she nodded and focused on Murder as he mimed how to cup her hands over her mouth to mimic different raptor calls. Maisie grinned when she mimicked a bark and heard several barked replies. However, Murder didn’t share her enthusiasm. Instead, he tilted his head to the side.

“…That was only four. I didn’t hear Jan.” He narrowed his eyes and sat up straight to scan the grass. With how the four had sounded off, he searched behind them, then spotted the slight movement of grass. His upper lip twitched into a silent snarl. “Do not move. Do not make a sound.”

She froze at the sudden shift in personality and the edge of a snarl to his voice. Wide eyed, she dug her fingers into the fabric of her pants; Murder had tensed up. Then she heard sudden, violent rustling of the grass behind her.

Jan shrieked and leapt for Maisie’s back, only to be caught by the chest by Murder’s hand. His snarls of anger were drowned out by Murder’s as the hybrid slammed him down on the ground. Without any hesitation, he leaned down towards the hatchling, still snarling; the sound terrifying coming from a human. Within seconds, Jan had switched from snarling to a high-pitched scream of fear and was struggling to get away.

The rest of the hatchlings had come to see what the fuss was about, but remained at the edge of the grass. When Murder finally release Jan, the Indoraptor ran to his brothers. Rather than welcoming him, Alex and Luke both nipped at him as further discipline. This caused him to dart to the back of the pack and receive more nips as he went.

Murder leaned back, ignoring his bleeding hand, and looked to a terrified looking Maisie, “You alright?”

She nodded, but didn’t say anything. Instead, she gave the hatchlings a wary look.

“I don’t think he’ll do that again. The others won’t.” He looked down at his hand where Jan had dug his claws in and sighed. Likely, it meant he needed to start catching them live prey to hunt. Either way, he’d need to discuss things with Rowan.

“…Thanks for stopping him.”

Murder shrugged and examined the marks on his hand to see how deep they were. “He broke a number of rules. He tried to attack someone who’s been allowed on the pack territory and he attacked without my express permission. I’m not going to tolerate his disrespect.”

“Should we head back? We’ve been out here awhile.” She pointed at the shadow of the scrub tree. When they’d arrived, both rocks had been in the shade. Now, Murder’s was nearly completely in the sun.

Murder nodded and moved to get up when Jan slinked over to him. The hatchling’s tail dragged the ground and his head was hung but twisted so that the underside of his throat was exposed. Covering his flanks were spots of blood where he’d been nipped. Maisie tensed but glanced at Murder when he held up his hand. “He’s asking for forgiveness. I disciplined and his brothers disciplined him. Look at his flanks. They booted him down to the lowest rank in the pack.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Not me. You. He attacked you. Shove him on his side.”

She hesitated but at Murder’s nod, reached over and shoved the hatchling who flopped over his side. Immediately, Jan drew his legs up to his body, wrapped his tail around himself, and then tilted his head back to expose his neck.

“Flick his nose.”

“He’s shaking…He’s scared.”

“I know he is, and he should be. He shouldn’t have done what he did. Raptor discipline is often violent and causes injuries to the one that stepped over the line.”

Maisie finally flicked the hatchling’s nose, a lot lighter than what Murder would have done, but it seemed to have gotten the point across. Jan slowly rolled back over onto his stomach and remained hunkered down for a moment. Before slowly attempting to climb into Maisie’s lap. She froze.

“It’s normal. He’s still trying to get forgiveness. Pet his back.”

She shot Murder an uncertain look before petting the hatchling who finally seemed to relax; Jan made a quiet chirp. After a moment longer, he slipped off her lap and slinked back to the other hatchlings; Idiot snapped down on his tail tip resulting in Jan squawking loudly.

“Alright. Should head back.” Murder commented and motioned Maisie over so she could piggyback again. “…You want to call them to follow?”

She cupped her hands over her mouth and made a bark that was half way between ‘I see you’ and ‘follow me’. Murder supposed that it worked because the hatchlings all fell in line and started following. Maisie grinned at the sight of the five following after them.

It was close to noon, by Murder’s estimates, when they finally broke out of the woods behind the house. Standing on the porch was Owen, Claire, and Rowan. From the looks of things, they were about to set off to go hiking. Murder made a low rumble of amusement. “I think we’re in trouble.”

Maisie huffed from behind him. “I had fun…Even if Jan was a massive jerk.”

“Go tell them what you learned.” He crouched down to set her on the ground and watched her jog towards the three other adults; the five hatchlings flanked her. As soon as she’d reached Owen, she started rapid fire talking about all the things she’d learned about raptors. Then mimicked the ‘I’m boss’ bark, which caused all of the hatchlings to focus on her.

Rowan seemed fairly amused and had a bit of an ‘I told you so’ expression, while Owen had crouched down to excitedly nerd over Maisie had learned. Claire seemed half way ready to scold the girl, but finally just sighed and went back into the house.

Murder meandered over and Rowan immediately picked up on his injured hand. “What happened?”

“Jan being a little shit. Nearly got himself thrown into a tree.”

Rowan’s eyes flicked down at Maisie and then back to Murder who only gave the slightest of nods. This prompted Rowan to briefly frown but give a small nod of acknowledgement. As if the small exchange had never happened, Rowan gave a grin. “Well, since you two had fun, how about lunch?”

Later that night, after the humans had both gone to bed, Rowan and Murder stood outside on the porch. Distantly, a pack of coyotes sang to the backdrop of cicadas and crickets with the occasional solo of nightbirds. Rowan leaned over the wood railing and rested his elbows on it. His first finger tapped against the wood, much like a raptor would tap its toe claw. Similar to Murder, he’d picked up many raptor habits and expressed them as a human. “So, Jan attacked her?”

Murder was leaning against a wood support column. “Tried to. Snuck through the grass and tried to jump her. I saw him, caught him, and…Quite frankly, nearly broke the fucker’s neck.”

Rowan sighed, “He snarled at me the other day after I disciplined him for nipping Owen. He’s getting worse.”

“I know he is, and you can’t keep protecting him, Rowan.”

“He’s a baby! We can’t just kill him without giving him a chance.”

“Remember whose genes he carries. The Indoraptor wasn’t a fluffy pink unicorn and we _both_ know what I am. It’s possible that he has the worst traits from us both.”

Rowan sighed and rested his head on his forearms. “I know…I know…I just…I don’t want to kill him without exhausting all our options. Is there anything that you can possibly think of that he might be needing?”

“Hunting. They were trying to chase after a rabbit, and they’ve been play pouncing their toys.”

“So, finding them a rabbit or a fawn?”

Murder considered for a moment, “Either would work. It’d need to be injured and we’d need to supervise. They kept up with me pretty well today.” He made a soft noise of thought.

“How about instead of us feeding them tomorrow, we go hunting as a pack? One of us stays with them, the other goes hunting, and finds them something to ‘hunt’. If they can’t kill it, we do and feed it to them.”

“Well, aren’t you just a thoughtful momma raptor.” Murder teased and nudged Rowan in the side with his elbow. “But that’s what I was thinking.”

This caused Rowan to bat at him. “I think you do that pretty well on your own…Especially since you kept threatening to eat them initially.” Then he sighed. “Jan’s becoming an issue though. I don’t want to, but if he keeps getting worse…”

Murder looked towards the woods and nodded, “At least we tried.”


	4. Private Moments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random thought while writing this: raptors having feather crests like cockatoos.
> 
> You're welcome.

Murder woke up with a soft inhale as adrenaline flooded his system. His fingers flexed a few times with the remnants of a dream just out of his mental grasp. As her waited for his heart beat to slow, he blinked a few times to rid the last bits of sleep from his mind. It was still dark and he instinctively knew dawn was a short time away. In short, the perfect time to go hunting, especially since it wasn’t likely that he’d fall back to sleep.

He quietly yawned and looked over at Rowan who was still asleep. The man had once risen with the sun but had slowly adopted a later wake up time over the years. After a final stretch, Murder rolled over onto his stomach and shifted himself so he was leaning over Rowan. There, he lightly nuzzled and nipped the other man’s neck till he woke up with a low noise.

“…What time is it? It’s still dark.”

“I don’t know. Before five, probably.” Murder sat up in the darkness and started moving off the bed.

“Why the hell did you wake me up so early?” Rowan groaned and rubbed his face.

“To go hunting. You can babysit the shits while I catch something. Then we can sleep once everyone’s fed.”

Rowan just burrowed down into the covers with a quiet whine and a sound suspiciously like ‘nuh’. This prompted Murder to lean over and kiss him. “Up. I’ll do all the hunting. It’s still too cold in the morning for them to huddle by themselves. You can nap and babysit them.”

“Maybe if you bribe me again I’ll get up.”

“I think I see where Pip gets his demanding personality from.” Murder lightly snarked, but the tone was more gentle teasing than anything. Still, he kissed Rowan again with the addition of a gentle head nudge and a soft purr.

“Aw. Well, when you put it that way.” Rowan smirked in the darkness and touched the side of Murder’s head, prompting the other to lean into the touch with a throaty purr. He finally stretched and yawned as he fought to wake up. Then, he gently pushed Murder’s head to the side, prompting the other man to quietly laugh. “Alright, alright. Move so I can get up.”

Murder stepped away and tossed Rowan’s sweatpants from yesterday at him before he pulled his own pants on. Normally, he would have simply wandered through the house as he was, but the issue of guests prevented that. Once both of them were dressed, he padded out of the bedroom and gathered up the sleepy Indoraptors with the help of Rowan. Owen had his face buried in his covers, and was oblivious to the world when the eight slipped out the back door.

As soon as he was in the woods, Murder stripped down and stuffed his pants into a plastic, waterproof box Rowan had purchased some time back. Then, he took Rowan’s offered pants and stuff them in as well. Once he had shifted to his raptor form, he patiently waited on Rowan. The other wasn’t as fast as him and usually took a moment or two longer.

It had always puzzled him on why the other hybrid’s coloration was different. Where he was a dark brown with vivid green stripes from the middle of his neck down to his tail tip with a green blush over his head, Rowan was a different coloration entirely. Sort of. While he had the same base color and patterning, rather than having green, he was red. What started as a bright, vivid red on his head slowly darkened to a rust red over his hips and then faded into the brown base as the markings went down his tail. Much like Murder, his head seemed to have a faint iridescent appearance to it, but this was something easily missed by human eyes. To a human, the coloration was a lot duller than Murder’s coloration, with Rowan’s head being the only vivid part.…But then again, human eyes missed so much.

Raptor eyes saw so, so much more. Anytime Rowan moved his head, the red shifted to a myriad of oranges, yellows, and golds. InGen had done their guests a disservice by trying to alter their dinosaurs into something ‘natural’. True dinosaurs had been bright and vivid, more akin to ruby-throated hummingbirds than a bland house wren.

Gently, he nudged the side of Rowan’s head with his snout and made a soft rumble when the other leaned into him. At their feet, the hatchlings huddled and made soft chirps of concern. They’d never been out this early and while they would become dangerous predators in the future, their current small size made them vulnerable to the few predators that still lurked around.

Murder quietly barked, the sound more of a throaty cough than anything, and started walking. The six moved as a tight huddle behind him and Rowan fell in line at the very back. In a normal pack setting, he would have been at Murder’s hip, but the youngsters changed that dynamic. With this positioning, he’d be able to ensure no one got lost and nothing snuck up on the hatchlings.

After walking a short ways, Murder stopped in a small clearing. There were large rocks that dotted it, and the ground was covered in fern like greenery. Once it warmed up, it’d be a nice place for the hatchlings to romp around and burn off energy. He looked over his shoulder and made two quick barks, with the second ending in a trill; Rowan’s call. Once he had the other’s attention, he tilted his head towards the rocks.

Rowan simply made a soft snort of acknowledgement before he wandered over to a larger rock and lightly pawed at the ground before he laid down. Then, he rapidly chittered to call over the hatchlings. They bolted over to him and immediately piled up against his chest. Their soft chirps of concern immediately quieted down into low warbles of contentment. With the seven settled and knowing that anything that bothered the hatchlings would be brutally mauled, Murder left to find breakfast.

The horizon was beginning to grey, and the woods was the strange blend of the nighttime animals bedding down and the day time animals slowly waking up. He wasn’t too concerned about getting a large kill that could feed all of them, both him and Rowan could eat breakfast later. Right now, it was mostly finding something for the Indoraptors to hunt.

The sun had finally peeked over the horizon when he snapped the yearling buck up in his jaws. The deer had injured himself and walked with a limp, making him a prime target for culling. Despite heavily hunting the lands, Murder had done research into feeding the different animal herds. If he kept them healthy, supplemented their food, and culled the weak, it would provide him plenty of prey.

It probably helped that he’d mostly scared off any other predators that might eat his herds.

The buckling had stopped screaming by the time he returned to Rowan and the hatchlings. Instead, it had settled for simply hyperventilating. Murder dropped it on the ground and slammed a foot down on it’s lower back, the action shattering its pelvis. He wanted the hatchlings to hunt, and the only way they’d learn was by doing…And the best way for them to ‘do’, was something they could kill. It was cruel, it was brutal, and it was how predators had taught their young to hunt for eons. Rowan had hesitantly and clumsily gone through the same rite of passage nearly two years ago.

With its hips broken, the buckling screamed, silencing the sound of the morning birds and causing seven heads to sleepily raise. Murder softly called to the Indoraptors and stepped away from the deer; it tried to get up but only laboriously dragged itself away. The six approached warily, making uncertain chirps and bobbing their heads. Up until this point, they’d never seen live prey…Only the recently dead.

Murder softly called to them again, reassuring them that it was safe. Idiot was the first to jump onto the buckling’s back and he inquisitively gnawed on the still tiny antlers. Deeming the injured animal a non-threat, he barked at the other five. With that signal, the others joined him in pouncing onto the buckling. It was painfully clear to both Murder and Rowan that the six had no idea what to do. Truthfully, it wasn’t unexpected. The hatchlings were inexperienced and honestly? While both Rowan and Murder ‘knew’ how to raise raptors due to instinct, the Indoraptors were a bit of a mystery since they were an entirely new species. Considering what Murder and Rowan were, it was only fitting that they raise the six.

Idiot experimentally nipped at the buckling’s shoulder and the ‘looked’ to Murder with an uncertain chirp. Rowan climbed to his feet and answered instead with a soft rumble, then he ever so gently touched Idiot’s flank with his nose. It was fine; the six had permission. Suddenly, Idiot made a sharp bark, the sound louder than what something his size should be able to make. He snapped down on the underside of the buckling’s neck and tried to pull it down, but his weight wasn’t enough. At least until Alex pounced onto the animal’s neck and dug his claws in.

The other four had already ripped in to start eating, even as Alex and Idiot struggled to kill the deer. Finally, Idiot snaked his body around and kicked out with his hind legs, ripping the buckling’s throat out with his toe claws. A few moments later, the animal had bled out and both Idiot and Alex were covered in blood. All six were promptly praised with light nuzzles and soft purrs.

Murder and Rowan allowed the hatchlings to eat while keeping an eye out for potential predators that the buckling’s screams could have pulled in. However, nothing proved to be brave enough. Once the six were finished eating, they each received a quick tongue bath from both parents before the two elder hybrids finished off the deer. It wasn’t a lot of meat, but it helped sooth some of the stomach rumbles.

Finally, the two laid down next to each other with the hatchlings snuggled up against their chests making the usual post breakfast happy grunts. By this point, the sun had risen enough to light up the clearing and Murder couldn’t help but close his eyes before flopping his head across Rowan’s back. A meal followed by sunning was a quick way to make him sleepy.

It was the sound of Claire making Maisie breakfast that woke Owen up. He yawned and blinked a few times at the absence of the hatchlings doing their usual breakfast baying. Then, he noted the absence of Murder and Rowan. He yawned again. “Where’s all the raptors?”

“Don’t know. They were gone when I woke up.” Claire held up an egg and nodded when Owen gestured that he wanted two.

“I guess they went on a walk or something. The property is massive, according to Rowan. We sort of tossed around the idea of Blue living up here…If I can find her. I don’t know if she’d stay in the local area, but it’s a pretty remote area, regardless.” Owen got up to walk to the backdoor, “But I want to go for a hike and check things out before I commit to the idea.”

Claire sent him a look, “Are you trying to talk me into going hiking with you?”

“Sure. Want to come Maisie?”

Maisie shook her head as she put her chopped up eggs on her toast. “Murder gave me a Netflix profile and showed me how to use it. And he showed me what cartoons from the shelf I can watch.”

“You sure?” Owen guessed that she was probably still tired from the hike yesterday. So, when the girl nodded, he looked to Claire. “Sounds like it’ll just be us.”

After breakfast, Owen and Claire set off on their hike. Rowan had told him that Murder had a number of trails that zig zagged around the property, but they all led back to one starting spot. With that in mind, he wasn’t too worried about getting lost. Almost as soon as he’d entered the woods, he tugged Claire down into a crouch.

“Look!” He excitedly gestured at foot prints. There were two distinct sets of raptor footprints followed by quite a few smaller prints that clearly belonged to the Indoraptors. “Looks like Rowan and Murder took the gang for a walk.”

“I just hope they know what they’re doing…” Claire couldn’t help but frown, the memory of being chased by the first Indoraptor still fresh in her mind. “I know they mean well, but I’m just worried since those are the clones of the Indoraptor…”

“I honestly get the feeling that neither of them would allow that to happen.” Owen stood up and continued walking. Overall, the woods were nice. It wasn’t quite the jungles of Nublar or Sorna, but there was still plenty of heavy undergrowth and was perfect for raptor hunting.

When he broke into a clearing, Owen immediately backed up and yanked Claire into a crouch. Before she could protest, he clamped a hand over her mouth and simply pointed. In front of them was Murder and Rowan laying side by side. Rowan had his chin resting on his flank while Murder had his head resting on Rowan’s back; their positioning was so that their heads could touch. Stretched out in front of their chests were the hatchlings.

Idiot quietly raised his head and rapidly clicked as he scanned the edge of the clearing. Once he stared at at Owen and Claire, he barked. This prompted Owen to slowly back up, tugging Claire with him. Softly, he spoke, “That’s something incredibly private for them. We should go.”

Claire didn’t quite understand Own’s meaning, but she also knew that he had likely picked up on something she didn’t see. Still, she couldn’t help but frown at the change in Owen’s mood: he’d gone from chatty and joking to quiet and tense.

Suddenly, a distance away to their left was a bark. This was answered by a bark behind them. Owen swore softly. “Assholes are play hunting us.”

“They’re _hunting_ us?” A horrified look crossed Claire’s face.

“ _Play_ hunting.” Owen stressed the word ‘play’. “If they were actually hunting us, we’d already be dead. Rowan once dragged me into the woods and Murder started doing the same. I half wonder if Rowan was in on it.”

He led Claire through the woods, briefly pausing to crush some evergreen needles in order to wipe the smell over them. “It might help throw them off our trail, if they don’t have eyes on us.”

From there, he led them down into a creek where he followed it upstream a bit to a pond where he finally pulled her down into some tall reeds. Softly, he whispered to her. “They’ll probably still find us, but hopefully, it won’t be too quickly.”

“Are you _sure_ they’re playing?”

“…Positive.” He hesitated a half second before muttering, “Mostly.”

This earned him a smack to the shoulder…Likely one he deserved.

Murder followed the trail the two left, at his hip was Rowan, and trotting after him were the quietly chirping hatchlings. Owen was an interesting one to play hunt. He knew all sorts of tricks to hide his trail and usually ended up drawing out the game. It’d be a good lesson for the youngsters. Now and then, Murder paused to ‘find’ the trail. In reality, the Indoraptors were eager to find their ‘prey’ and quickly pointed out where to go. This was exactly what he wanted; they needed to practice their skills.

It was only when they reached the general area of where Owen and Claire were hiding did the hatchlings quiet down. Terry had been the best tracker, and so he was the one sent out to be ‘bait’. The other five circled to form the ‘net’. Idiot and Jan to the left, Alex and Luke to the right, and Pip from behind.

Owen glanced at his watch and quietly sighed. While he’d hoped he’d managed to get the pack the slip, he wasn’t entirely sure. That’s when there was a soft, chirp-purr from in front of them. He looked up to see Terry standing there, his head cocked to the side. They’d been found. Seconds later, the other five barked from around them. Claire flinched when either Murder or Rowan barked from nearby.

Slowly, Owen stood, pulling Claire up with him. He held his hand up over his head, “You found us.”

Around them, the six hatchlings started a frenzy of chirps before darting off to stand between the two raptors. There, Murder leaned over to examine the six and made a soft noise.

“Took the kids hunting?”

After the hatchlings had returned to him, Murder gently nosed their heads and made a soft sound of praise before he looked to Owen and nodded. Honestly, the two looked a bit frazzled and a bit muddy but were otherwise fine. He supposed that he’d likely hear about it later and really, the only one who’d probably be overly upset was Claire. Owen wasn’t too happy when he’d first done it, but Murder suspected that the man would calm down after a quick explanation.

“Since you two assholes chased us off the trails, gonna lead us home?” Owen stared at the two raptors expectantly.

Rowan nodded and moved to start walking but stopped when his flank was nipped at by Murder who took the lead instead. As a rebuttal, Rowan shoved his head against the other’s side and made an annoyed huff before calling the Indoraptors to follow.

“Guess that’s our cue to follow.” Owen shot a grin at Claire who just shook her head.

“That was terrifying, Owen.”

“Yeah, but did you hear the little chirp Terry made? He was so proud that he found us.” He was grinning like a loon.

“I swear to God, Owen. I better not find one of those hatchlings stuffed in a duffle bag when we leave.”

“But mooooooom!” Owen mock whined, but then at Claire’s gesture, looked at the two hybrids who’d stopped walking. Both of them were staring at him with Murder twitching his upper lip. Owen held up his hands as a gesture of peace. “I kid, I kid.”

The walk back to the house was fairly uneventful save for the few times when the Indoraptors darted off after a rabbit or squirrel, however, they always returned after one of the elder raptors called them back. Owen and Claire continued on to the house with the hatchlings in tow while Murder and Roan changed back, then dressed.

Maisie looked up when the two stepped into the house and then wrinkled her nose at how they smelled of evergreens. However, she leaned over curiously when the six hatchlings all but flopped on the wood floor. “What’s wrong with them?”

Owen snagged a glass out of the cabinet, “Probably hot and tired. Murder and Rowan took them hunting this morning and then they play hunted us.”

She gave them a bit of a wide-eyed look at this information, but looked at Murder and Rowan as they passed on the way to their bedroom. Then she looked back to Claire and Owen, “So, did they find you?”

“Yup! The six little terrors found us.”

Maisie looked back down at the hatchlings in question. Alex was flopped on his side, panting like a dog. She looked up at Owen and felt a bit unconvinced. A few minutes later, Rowan wandered out of the bedroom fully dressed and with shoes on.

“We’re needing to head into town to grab some things. Can you guys handle the anklebiters till we get back, or does Murder need to hang out?”

Owen peered over the counter at the Indoraptors, then back to Rowan, “I think they’re about to pass out. We’ll be fine.”

Rowan gave a nod and briefly disappeared into the bedroom, then was followed back out by Murder who was carrying a pair of work boots.

Murder sat down in the recliner to pull on the boots and as he worked to lace them up, glanced at the three humans. “We’re gonna pick up some lunch. I don’t care what it is, Rowan’s being stereotypical and voting Mexican.”

“Seriously? You’re bringing that up?”

“Hey, I’m just waiting for you to get mad enough one of these days and threaten one of the Indos with ‘la chancla’.” This statement caused him to duck the pillow that was thrown at him and make a sound suspiciously close to a cackle.

Maisie had paused what she was watching, “What’s that?”

“Spanish for ‘flip-flop of doom’, I’ve been told.” Owen replied.

Rowan gestured at Owen, “Basically. Every Latino kid gets the fear of la chancla put into them.”

“Especially you?” Claire asked.

“Oh, hell yeah. I was a little shit. I’d get chased all through the house.”

Murder stood up, “Not much has changed, then.”

“Ehehehe.” Rowan just grinned, “But seriously. Food orders people.”

Owen chimed for pizza, Maisie agreed with Mexican, and much like Murder, Claire didn’t care.

Rowan made a happy noise and dug through a stack of papers on the counter before sliding a menu towards Owen and Claire. “That’s the restaurant. Fantastic place. Figure out what you guys want, and send me a text.”

The two left a few moments later. Once the three had figured out what to order and Owen had texted Rowan, Claire left to go take a shower while Owen tried to try and get ahold of a few people he knew. When he finished with one conversation, he turned around and was fairly surprised to see Maisie and all six of the Murderettes sharing the couch. Flopped over her lap was Idiot, while Pip had perched on the back of the couch by her head. Terry was snuggled up to her leg and absolutely passed out. Both Luke and Alex had burrowed down in the blanket to her right. Jan was sitting on the arm of the couch and seemed to be sulking.

“Made a bunch of new friends?” Owen leaned on the counter, and amused expression on his face.

Maisie just sort of shrugged. “They’re not that bad…They’re not like the Indoraptor. Except Jan. He tried to attack me yesterday and I think Murder was almost ready to kill him for it.”

All the humor dropped from his face, “Were you hurt?”

“No. Murder’s hand got clawed up, but all the other hatchlings beat up on Jan after Murder was done growling at him.” She frowned slightly, “He said that Jan got kicked down to the bottom of the pack because of it.”

This concerned Owen, especially since he hadn’t been told about the incident. He’d need to bring that little bit up to Murder and Rowan, because that sure as shit wasn’t going to fly with him. When Claire stepped out of the guest bathroom and into the living area, he shot her a concerned look. “Maisie said Jan tried to attack her yesterday and Murder stopped him. Did either of the two tell you about that?”

Claire immediately shared the same look of concern and shook her head, then heavily frowned at the hatchlings surrounding Maisie. “No, they didn’t…”

“I’ll talk to them after we eat and I’ll let you know what they say.”

“We should both talk to them.”

“Which might make them both defensive.” Owen sighed, “Claire, I’ve known them both longer than you have, and as much as they gripe about the hatchlings, it’s pretty obvious that they’re attached. Maisie said that Murder was about to kill Jan for what he did, so it’s likely not a first-time issue for him. Let me talk to them and we can decide if we want to leave or not.”

“If it’s not a first-time issue, that’s exactly why we should both talk to them…They knew there was an issue with him and didn’t bring it up with us.”

“Or, they didn’t know because the hatchlings haven’t been around anyone but them.” The frustration Owen felt was starting to seep through in his voice.

Before Claire could reply, Idiot made a startled squawk as Maisie suddenly scooped him up and darted out the backdoor. Owen sighed and rubbed his face with his hands, then moved to go after her.

“Give her a few minutes.” Claire commented quietly and looked over at the remaining five hatchlings who all seemed confused.

“Surprised you’d leave her alone with one of them.”

“It’s _Idiot_. He’s about as harmless as they come. Yesterday, he snuck into the bedroom, climbed on the bed, and promptly walked off of it.” Claire shook her head. “I can really understand why he got his name.”

Maisie didn’t go too far and instead sat down under a shade tree with Idiot. This is where Claire found her. Idiot was stretched out in her lap, thoroughly enjoying the stomach rub he was getting. With a quiet noise, he stretched and lightly pawed his snout with his hand before finally curling up on his side.

Claire sat down next to her. “We shouldn’t have argued in front of you. I’m sorry.”

“No…I understand why you were upset. It was pretty scary…But…I don’t know. It’s not bad here. It reminds me of home and yeah, Murder and Rowan are scary sometimes, but they’re okay.” She looked down at Idiot who was making quiet, content purrs.

“We’re just worried about you.”

She looked back to Claire, “Because of Jan?”

“We don’t know anything about them, how they’ll grow up.”

“…You could say the same about me.”

Claire’s mouth snapped shut. She couldn’t really argue about that, at least not without potentially stirring up more issues. It was a delicate situation, and Maisie was one of the reasons Owen had been hesitant about returning home.

“We’re…Just worried that Jan will end up like the first Indoraptor.” She had to approach this delicately. “I know the others have been fantastic, bu–“

“I trust Rowan and Murder.” Maisie looked up. “They know them better. Murder explained to me about Owen and said that even though he knows a lot, that he’s still missing a bunch about raptors. That Owen just thinks he can talk to raptors…And I know Rowan and Murder actually _can_. I’ve seen them do it.”

Finally, Claire sighed and nodded. “Alright. I’ll let Owen be the one to talk to them…But Maisie…If something happens again with Jan please, please let me and Owen know, alright?”

Maisie nodded, “I will.”

It was dinner time when Rowan and Murder finally got back from grocery shopping, but much to everyone’s happiness, brought the requested Mexican food. Towards the end of dinner, Owen chose to carefully pop the question. “Hey, can I talk to you two after dinner?”

Murder just grunted and continued shoveling his nachos into his mouth while Rowan rolled his eyes at the other hybrid. “Yeah. Sure.”

Once dinner was done and the leftovers put away, Owen headed out onto the porch, followed by the two hybrids. “I’m…Just going to cut to the chase. Maisie told us about Jan. Claire and I are worried he’ll try it again.”

Murder spoke up before Rowan had a chance. “If he tries his shit again, he’s dead.”

This cause Rowan to make an uncomfortable sigh, but then he nodded. “We’ve been having aggression issues with him from day one. That’s part of the reason we went on the hike today because Murder wondered if Jan’s hunting instincts are kicking in early. It’s…Mostly a case of trying everything before we…Well, kill him.”

“Which leads me to my second problem. Why didn’t you tell us? Come on, guys. I’ve been through hell with you two.” Owen sent Murder a look. “Especially you.”

“Wasn’t sure how you two would react, to be honest.” Rowan leaned against the railing. “And with the history of the original Indoraptor, figured you’d think that the rest of ‘em were about to go nuts.”

“Are they?”

“No. Jan’s literally the only one we’ve had problems with and Murder’s been about ready to break his neck since day two.”

“So why haven’t you if he’s such a pain?”

Murder simply tilted his head towards Rowan who sighed and raised his hand slightly. “I just…I want to give him a chance instead of just writing him off like the Indoraptor. But…If he keeps getting worse…” Rowan sighed and looked down, “If he keeps getting worse, we won’t have any choice.”

Owen looked towards the woods, but finally heaved a sigh and looked back to the two, “Yeah, I get where you’re coming from. It’s not an easy choice to make. Back when I.B.R.I.S was getting started, there was this one hatchling, one of the first that survived. Wu was trying different types of DNA to see what worked as far as personality. She was aggressive as they came, right out of the egg, she was a spitfire.” He snorted and shook his head. “Could barely sit up, and she was already trying to kill everything that got near her. Couldn’t touch her, couldn’t imprint her, nothing. Didn’t even get to name her…They just called her ‘V-2’. Wasn’t more than two weeks old when I signed the papers for them to euthanize her. Really thought hard about being part of the program after that.”

“Probably a good thing you did.” Murder commented.

“Oh, come on. Maisie also told me about what you said about me. The whole ‘Owen doesn’t know what he’s talking about’.”

Murder grunted and rolled his eyes. “No, I said you have a beginner’s grasp on how raptors communicate. There’s more to it than barks and head tilts. I won’t deny you’re one of the most knowledgeable people on raptors.” He tilted his head suddenly and side eyed Owen for a moment. “This isn’t about me or Jan…You’re worried about Blue.”

Owen clammed up and immediately went defensive. “She’s a fully-grown raptor and can take care of herself. She did just fine on Nublar.”

“That was Nublar.”

“Blue is fine.” Maybe if he repeated it enough he’d believe it. However, the twin, unconvinced stares he had directed his way finally made him sigh. “Alright, fine. I am worried about her. I’m worried some fucker will shoot her and turn her into a stuffed trophy. I’m worried she’ll see a semi or a train and think she can take it on. I…Just want to find her. I’ve talked to some people I know but…” He shook his head.

“I understand, Owen, but you don’t need to take it out on us. You know we’ll help you, if at all possible.” Surprisingly, it wasn’t Rowan that spoke, but Murder.

Owen nodded, but didn’t look up at the two. “I know. Thank you.” He turned and walked back into the house, once more the confident, almost carefree mask back in place.

When Murder and Rowan followed him back inside, they both stopped at the sight of Maisie asleep on the couch with five of the hatchlings curled up around and on her. Only Jan was absent, having chosen to perch at the top of the cat climbing tree Rowan had insisted on buying.

Rowan looked over at the other three, a slight grin on his face. “I guess they wanted a big sister.”


End file.
